I Suck At Home Improvement

saturday was actually a very slow day for karen and i.

a long while ago, my bff (kerry) had asked us if we would be around on saturday because she was planning on a mid-year birthday party celebration for all of our friends who have birthdays in december (me included). well, it turns out that the party celebration had to be moved to the following weekend to include more birthday celebrants.

unfortunately, as karen and i had already committed to the plan for this weekend, the change in dates provided us with a whole day with nothing to do. so, we did what anyone would do: we worked on a home improvement project.

now, i suck at home improvement. our big home improvement project right now is our first floor bathroom. for quite some time, our first floor bathroom has been inoperable. the supply line to the toilet broke. the copper pipes to the bathroom area also burst. needless to say, the bathroom needed work.

we began demolition of the bathroom some time ago by removing some of the tiles that adorned the bathroom walls. unfortunately, we had to halt the project due to our busy schedule. as well, we had give us enough time to dispose of the construction material, rather than let the debris collect to ungodly amounts in our 1970s psychedelic green tub that came with the house.

on saturday, my favorite brother-in-law (pj) helped us out by bringing his trailer over. let me tell you, pj's trailer holds a lot more debris than a 1970s psychedelic green tub. needless to say, karen and i were thrilled to have the use of pj's trailer.

in fact, i was so thrilled that i decided to visit my friend (ron) who lives up the street in nearby pembroke. it turns out that on saturday, ron needed help with one of his home improvement projects as well. ron is having a fourth of july party at his house. (for anyone curious, his house is gorgeous.) in preparation for the party, he needed help with his outdoor shower.

as karen was feeling confident that she could demolish the bathroom on her own, i went over to help out ron for a little while. i didn't know if i were going to be more help than hindrance to ron. it was, however, nice to just hang out with ron because i haven't really hung out with him in awhile.

ron and i ended up building some walls for his outdoor shower. we also started to attach cedar to the outside of the walls. this was the first time i have ever worked on a home improvement project with ron. it was a little comical because... well, like me... ron likes to stare at walls. when it comes to my own home improvement projects, i am the same way because i like to thoroughly think things through before building something. i'm a little different when it comes to working on other people's home improvement projects.

anyway, i left ron's shortly after finishing the exterior of two walls. when i got home, i was surprised to see all the work that karen had accomplished on our bathroom. she ripped down a whole bunch of walls... down to the studs. (yes... stud... like me... just kidding.) she even ripped down the non-supporting wall that divided the room up. i was totally impressed.

as i was still in full work-on-the-house mode, i decided to continue with the home improvement theme. so i tackled the fun part: removal of the toilet. luckily, there was nothing in the toilet. i must say... i don't like to touch a toilet when it's clean... let alone one that has been nonfunctional for many months. anyway, i dismantled the toilet pretty easily. (of course, after removing the toilet, the water damaged subfloor became all the more noticeable... something that will also need to be addressed later on...)

following the toilet, i removed the light fixture above the area where the toilet used to be. i definitely do not recommend doing this, but i removed the light fixture from the junction box without shutting power off to the junction box. i know. i know. never break rule #1: turn off all power to the area where you will be doing electrical work. what can i say? i like to live dangerously. my sheer laziness and my self-confidence with electricity took the better part of me. (for anyone curious, nothing happened to me... so don't worry.)

and from there, i continued to remove some more of the wallboard within the bathroom. when all was said and done, karen and i did a lot of demolition in the bathroom. you should see pj's trailer right now. it's chock full of debris. and sadly... there's more to come.